Four School of Public Health students awarded at SDSU Student Symposium

At this year’s San Diego State University Student Symposium, four School of Public Health students were awarded for their research and presentations. Tharshana Prakash and Olivia Dark-Morrell received the Dean’s Award, Jasmine Barnes and Araz Majnoonian received the President’s Award.

Prakash is in the Master of Public Health program with a concentration in Health Promotion and Behavioral Science. Her project, titled “Supporting Smiles,” assesses the oral hygiene behaviors of Mexican American young adults at SDSU.

While Mexican American young adults experience significant oral health disparities, there is limited research into the issue. Prakash’s project looked into the social and behavioral factors influencing daily oral hygiene practices, using brushing and flossing guidelines from the American Dental Association as the benchmark.

Her research revealed that self-efficacy is a major factor in flossing adherence, while lack of barriers showed increased adherence in brushing behaviors. Together, these findings spotlight the importance of individual confidence and social environments in shaping preventive oral health practices.

“Receiving the Dean’s Award is incredibly meaningful to me, as it reflects both my dedication to this work and my passion for advancing oral health equity, she said. “Being recognized validates the importance of addressing disparities through research and motivates me to continue pursuing work that integrates dentistry and public health.”

Dark-Morrell, an undergraduate and the other Dean’s Award recipient, presented her project on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program usage at the People’s Produce Mobile Farmer’s Market, a food program that brings fresh produce to San Diegans.

She surveyed SNAP users at the farmer’s markets, tracking their awareness of SNAP acceptance at those markets and comparing awareness among different demographics. She also tracked where else SNAP benefits are spent.

She found that, although most participants were aware the farmer’s markets accepted SNAP benefits, just 4.8% chose to use them, most opting for grocery stores instead. She also found age and sex to be most associated with awareness; ethnicity was not significantly associated.

“[I] was thrilled to see that my passion and the hard work I put into this project did pay off,” she said, referring to the Dean’s Award.

Barnes and Majnoonian, the President’s Award winners, are both doctoral students; Majnoonian is in the global health track of the Joint Doctoral Program with the University of California, San Diego. They are two of nine President’s Award winners and will represent SDSU at this year's California State University Student Research Competition.

Barnes’ project assessed fatalism among people who use drugs and its influence on harm reduction practices. Majnoonian’s project looked at accessibility and utilization of domestic violence support services for women in Armenia.

This year marked SDSU’s 19th annual student symposium. More than 700 students presented at this year’s symposium with over 50 from the School of Public Health alone, making it the university’s largest symposium to date.